European sales of midsized cars were down 35% in the first half of 2020 to just over 350,000 sales, improving its share of the European car market to 6.9%, up from 6.5% in the first half of 2019 and 6.7% in all of last year. And luxury brands have now officially taken over control of this class, improving their share to 61.8% from 59.9% last year and claiming four of the top-5 positions.
The BMW 3-Series holds on to its newly found spot at the top of the ranking, even though it was slightly outsold by the Volkswagen Passat in Q2. The BMW’s 12% loss means it adds nearly 4 percentage points of share, while the Passat also outperforms the market thanks to a facelift and the return of the GTE plug-in hybrid version. The Mercedes-Benz C-Class moves back ahead of the Audi A4 again but remains the biggest loser of the top-8 with half of its sales gone. The Tesla Model 3 is down just 12% and consolidates its 5th place, while the Volvo S60/V60 moves past the Skoda Suberb to make it 5 luxury models in the top-6. The Peugeot 508 gains share but still loses a quarter of its sales. At least it continues to outsell the Ford Mondeo and Opel/Vauxhall Insignia, both of which lose more than half of their sales. So do the Audi A5 and BMW 4-Series, while the Volkswagen Arteon manages to keep its decline contained to 21%, perhaps helped by the new Shooting Brake model and a PHEV version.
The Toyota Camry almost doubles its sales as it was launched in Europe in Q2 of 2019 and celebrates its first anniversary, moving past the Kia Optima, Renault Talisman and most strikingly the Mazda6 which loses 74% of its sales, making it the biggest loser among midsized cars. The Alfa Romeo Giulia and Jaguar XE both lose almost half of their sales, while sales of the Subaru Legacy/Outback and Kia Stinger fall even faster. Strangely enough, a new generation Outback is already on the market in the US, but for Europe the brand is apparently waiting for new 1.5T and 1.8T engines to be ready for production.
| Midsized segment | 2020-H1 | 2019-H1 | Change | 2020 share | 2019 share | 2020-Q2 | |
| 1 | BMW 3-series | 52.140 | 59.128 | -12% | 14,8% | 10,9% | 17.212 |
| 2 | Volkswagen Passat | 49.916 | 65.051 | -23% | 14,2% | 12,0% | 17.720 |
| 3 | Mercedes-Benz C-Class | 39.151 | 77.888 | -50% | 11,1% | 14,4% | 16.253 |
| 4 | Audi A4 / S4 / RS4 | 37.152 | 55.878 | -34% | 10,6% | 10,3% | 12.935 |
| 5 | Tesla Model 3 | 32.524 | 37.161 | -12% | 9,2% | 6,9% | 12.012 |
| 6 | Volvo S60/V60 | 28.984 | 33.857 | -14% | 8,2% | 6,3% | 12.675 |
| 7 | Skoda Superb | 25.613 | 37.142 | -31% | 7,3% | 6,9% | 10.310 |
| 8 | Peugeot 508 | 14.120 | 18.809 | -25% | 4,0% | 3,5% | 5.558 |
| 9 | Audi A5 / S5 / RS5 | 11.937 | 24.407 | -51% | 3,4% | 4,5% | 4.849 |
| 10 | Ford Mondeo | 10.335 | 20.715 | -50% | 2,9% | 3,8% | 3.623 |
| 11 | Opel/Vauxhall Insignia | 9.920 | 27.707 | -64% | 2,8% | 5,1% | 3.157 |
| 12 | BMW 4-series | 8.531 | 21.744 | -61% | 2,4% | 4,0% | 3.245 |
| 13 | Volkswagen Arteon | 7.256 | 9.217 | -21% | 2,1% | 1,7% | 2.329 |
| 14 | Toyota Camry | 4.314 | 2.239 | 93% | 1,2% | 0,4% | 1.733 |
| 15 | Kia Optima | 3.691 | 6.424 | -43% | 1,0% | 1,2% | 1.128 |
| 16 | Renault Talisman | 3.471 | 9.134 | -62% | 1,0% | 1,7% | 1.664 |
| 17 | Alfa Romeo Giulia | 3.236 | 5.979 | -46% | 0,9% | 1,1% | 1.409 |
| 18 | Mazda6 | 3.095 | 11.805 | -74% | 0,9% | 2,2% | 1.223 |
| 19 | Jaguar XE | 2.617 | 4.857 | -46% | 0,7% | 0,9% | 735 |
| 20 | Subaru Legacy / Outback | 1.389 | 2.819 | -51% | 0,4% | 0,5% | 636 |
| 21 | Lexus IS | 820 | 1.748 | -53% | 0,2% | 0,3% | 297 |
| 22 | Kia Stinger | 750 | 2.015 | -63% | 0,2% | 0,4% | 278 |
| 23 | Lexus RC | 299 | 579 | -48% | 0,1% | 0,1% | 128 |
| 24 | Subaru Levorg | 237 | 494 | -52% | 0,1% | 0,1% | 103 |
| 25 | Hyundai i40 | 227 | 2.048 | -89% | 0,1% | 0,4% | 21 |
| 26 | Infiniti Q50 | 70 | 348 | -80% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 7 |
| 27 | Polestar 2 | 18 | 0 | New | 0,0% | 0,0% | 18 |
| 28 | Infiniti Q60 | 1 | 71 | -99% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 29 | Toyota Avensis | 0 | 796 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,1% | 0 |
| 30 | DS5 | 0 | 140 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| 31 | Citroën C5 | 0 | 3 | -100% | 0,0% | 0,0% | 0 |
| Segment total | 351.814 | 540.203 | -35% |
Car sales statistics are from the following countries: Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland.
Sources: Manufacturers, ANDC, JATO Dynamics.